Comment by Riaz Haq on May 18, 2026 at 7:37am

Keji Mao (毛克疾）
@kejimao
The Japan Times writes, "India stands out as one of the biggest losers as the artificial intelligence trade reshapes global investment flows." It is quite surprising that even a major Japanese newspaper speaks out about this loudly. But the truth is Japan may well be in an even worse position when it comes to AI.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2026/05/17/india-missing-out-...

https://x.com/kejimao/status/2056269461955776653?s=20
-------

India missed out on AI and now its run as market darling may be over

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2026/05/17/india-missing-out-...

In a stark shift, the country’s stock market is on the verge of dropping out of the world’s five biggest for the first time in three years. Without the AI-driven rallies powering Taiwan and South Korea, there’s a growing risk that India falls further behind rather than regaining lost ground.

The rationale goes far beyond Indian equities being relatively expensive or corporate earnings slowing. Global investors, who not long pushed India close to rivaling China in emerging-market portfolios, are now chasing themes the country’s market largely lacks: chip manufacturing, computing infrastructure and AI models. While India has talent, demand and digital scale, few of its corporate champions are directly linked to that buildout. That increasingly leaves the market tied to the domestic consumption story.

“This isn’t a dip you buy,” said Gary Dugan, chief executive of Global CIO Office. “What markets haven’t fully priced yet is that this isn’t an earnings miss story in India, it’s a terminal value story. The assumptions about where these businesses are in 10 years have to change.”

Underscoring the scope of the revaluation, India’s weight in the MSCI emerging markets index has fallen to about 12% from 19% last year. Roughly two-thirds of the reallocation from India over the past 12 to 18 months reflects AI positioning, according to M&G Investments.

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India Misses Out on AI: Stock Market Close to Falling From Top 5 as AI Trade Favors Taiwan, Korea - Bloomberg

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-17/india-missed-out...

Takeaways by Bloomberg AI

India's stock market is on the verge of dropping out of the world's five biggest for the first time in three years due to the artificial intelligence trade reshaping global investment flows.
Global investors are chasing themes that India's market largely lacks, including chip manufacturing, computing infrastructure, and AI models, leaving the market tied to the domestic consumption story.
India's weight in the MSCI emerging markets index has fallen to about 12% from 19% last year, with foreign investors abandoning India at an accelerating pace and holding less than domestic institutions for the first time in more than 20 years.
India stands out as one of the biggest losers as the artificial intelligence trade reshapes global investment flows.

In a stark shift, the country’s stock market is on the verge of dropping out of the world’s five biggest for the first time in three years. Without the AI-driven rallies powering Taiwan and South Korea, there’s a growing risk that India falls further behind rather than regaining lost ground.

The rationale goes far beyond Indian equities being relatively expensive or corporate earnings slowing. Global investors, who not long pushed India close to rivaling China in emerging-market portfolios, are now chasing themes the country’s market largely lacks: chip manufacturing, computing infrastructure and AI models. While India has talent, demand and digital scale, few of its corporate champions are directly linked to that buildout. That increasingly leaves the market tied to the domestic consumption story.

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 27, 2026 at 9:40am

 India stocks set for first yearly drop in over a decade as foreign investors leave: Reuters poll | Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-stocks-set-first-yearly-d...

An exodus of foreign hashtag#investors and limited exposure to an artificial intelligence (hashtag#AI) boom batter what was once Asia’s most attractive hashtag#market.

Some analysts say India’s valuation premium, once justified by strong economic growth expectations, is becoming harder to defend. The Indian market trades at more than 20 times earnings, above most major European and emerging markets, but offers one of the world’s lowest dividend yields.

That has left Indian equities vulnerable as global investors look for cheaper markets and higher-return opportunities linked to the AI-led global equity rally, particularly in US technology stocks. South Korea’s AI-laden KOSPI index has surged more than 200% in a year.

Meanwhile, India’s heavyweight information technology stocks index has fallen by more than a third since December 2024.

Already down about 8.5% this year, the Nifty 50 was forecast to rise only around 8.7% to 26,000 at end-2026 from Tuesday’s close, a May 15-27 poll of 24 analysts showed. If realised, the annual decline of about 0.5% would be its first yearly loss since 2015.

It was then expected to bounce to 27,000 by mid-2027 and 29,000 by end-2027.

The BSE Sensex was projected to be 84,150 at end-2026 and 87,895 at mid-2027. The median forecasts for both indices were sharply downgraded from a February poll, conducted before the US-Israel war with Iran began.

 

 

”Everyone wants returns at the end of the day, whether it’s foreigners or domestic investors. Nobody wants to just park their money for fun … but the returns are not there, earnings growth is almost negligible to very low.

AI is where the flavour of the town is right now and this is where India, not just we lack it, we are actually on the wrong side,” said Rajat Agarwal, Asia equity strategist at Societe Generale.

Agarwal added domestic buyers who were keeping the market afloat through monthly systematic investment plans (SIPs) were also showing signs of strain.

SIPs, which are regular monthly mutual fund investments by retail shareholders, have grown nearly tenfold over the past decade. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) now own a record share of Indian equities while foreign ownership is at an all-time low.

”It is thanks to local DIIs and liquidity from retail participants the market has held up,” said Aman Sethia, head of treasury at Groww. ”If this hadn’t been in place, we would have seen the Nifty at around 19,000 or 20,000 over the last year.”

A slim majority of analysts, 13 of 24, said a correction was likely over the coming three months.

They said India’s limited exposure to the global AI trade and its vulnerability to a widening current account deficit due to the Middle East war are discouraging foreign investors from committing capital.

”Our exports are not growing and we know import bills will swell now with high energy prices. Given corporate earnings have not been that strong … we are not that favourably placed,” said Kishan Gupta, director at CD Equisearch.

Gupta added India’s corporate sector had not done enough to build innovation-led cash flows, particularly in AI. ”A culture of innovation – that thing is absent in our country.”

Comment by Riaz Haq on May 31, 2026 at 9:32am

Keji Mao (毛克疾）
@kejimao
India’s greatest weakness lies in having an overly advanced superstructure that is mismatched with its backward economic base and social realities. Put in simpler terms, India possesses first-world aspirations, values, and institutions, but operates with third-world economic resources, social conditions, and governance capabilities. That's why democracy as it stands now may well be a curse on India.

https://x.com/kejimao/status/2061107743013155046?s=20

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ThePrintIndia
@ThePrintIndia
'For China, India poses an ideological threat. It sees Indian democracy as a long-term ideological problem'-Former Foreign Secretary & ex-Ambassador to China, Vijay Gokhale
@VGokhale59
tells Swasti Rao
@swasrao
& Shekhar Gupta
@ShekharGupta
. Watch the full conversation tonight at 8 PM:

#ThePrintOTC

Partners:
@EdelweissFin
,
@NSEIndia
,
@TheQuorumClub
,
@VAHDAM_India
and Chivas Luxe Collective Perfumes

https://x.com/ThePrintIndia/status/2059597989166121002?s=20

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 1, 2026 at 8:17pm

South Korea Overtakes India as World’s Sixth-Largest Stock Market

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-02/s-korea-surpasse...

South Korea’s equity market has overtaken India’s as the world’s sixth largest, driven by a relentless surge in chip heavyweights powering the global artificial intelligence buildout.

The total market capitalization of Korea-listed companies has soared 86% this year to $5 trillion, while India’s has declined to $4.8 trillion, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc., newly minted members of the $1 trillion valuation club, have powered Korea’s equity surge.

Korea’s latest milestone comes after it vaultedpast Canada and other European countries this year, underscoring how investors are concentrating their bets on AI and its critical suppliers. Together with Taiwan, the two Asian chipmaking hubs are rewriting global equity rankings in a way that captures investor fascination over their outsized influence in the AI economy, yet also stirs concern about the risks of an overheated market.

The rally “highlights the continued relevance of South Korean technology companies in the next wave of technological innovation,” said Gerald Gan, chief investment officer at Reed Capital Partners. “It also reflects a broader shift in global capital flows toward major Asian economies, which were once overshadowed by Western markets but are now playing an increasingly prominent role in shaping the future of technology and growth.”

The Korean stock market has benefitted a dual tailwind, as President Lee Jae Myung’s push for corporate reform coincided with the emergence of AI as a dominant investment theme. The Kospi Index has powered past Lee’s 5,000 goal earlier this year and Wall Street analysts are now calling for 10,000.



But given the heavy concentration of gains in a handful of stocks, Ross McGarry, senior investment analyst at Asset Value Investors, cautioned that Korea must follow through.

“This year’s rally has been heavily carried by the memory cycle — Samsung and SK Hynix have done the heavy lifting,” he said, calling the closing in on India “a remarkable milestone.” The real test, he added, is whether Korea can sustain this re-rating through genuine corporate governance reform.

India, meanwhile, has been dragged lower by a weakening rupee, record foreign outflows and a dearth of companies directly linked to the AI infrastructure.

Higher energy costs have also stoked inflation concerns and clouded growth prospects, prompting global funds to sell about $26 billion of local equities this year. India’s stock benchmark is down about 11% this year, heading for its first annual drop after a decade of gains.

“The India growth story has increasingly lost momentum in investors’ minds as the country contends with mounting domestic and external political challenges,” Gan said. “At the same time, longstanding infrastructure deficiencies continue to undermine its ambitions in advanced manufacturing.”

While Korea has overtaken in market value, India’s $4.15 trillion economy — among the fastest growing in the world — still trumps Korea’s $1.93 trillion gross domestic product, according to International Monetary Fund estimates.

One of the theses for investing in the Indian stock market was that the GDP per capita could see a “J-curve in rising domestic consumption at $4,000 or above,” said Stanley Tang, senior portfolio manager at Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management. India’s GDP per capita reached $2,810 this year, according to IMF data.

“Long-term thesis still holds, but inflation is creating a near-term headwind,” Tang said

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 3, 2026 at 9:25am

Bloomberg
@business
India’s ambition to build and export a sovereign AI template across the world is colliding with structural constraints: years of underinvestment in compute capacity, a late start in building the most advanced AI models, deep reliance on foreign cloud providers and a venture capital culture wary of the vast, risky bets that define the global AI race. https://bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-06-02/modi-wants-india-to-...

https://x.com/business/status/2062048540986126535?s=20

--------------

Zhuo Chen | Katrina
@SouthernM46171
India wants sovereign AI. The gap between that ambition and reality showed up in three moments.

Last year, Microsoft blocked a Russian-backed Indian refiner from accessing data sitting on its own leased cloud servers. Not Chinese servers. Not American government servers. The company's own data, on infrastructure it was paying for — and someone else held the key. A third of Indian government systems are in the same position right now.

The structural picture makes it worse. India generates nearly 20% of the world's data and has less than 5% of its AI computing power. The US has roughly 100 times more high-end GPUs. India is feeding the machine; it just doesn't own one.

And the policy response? India's February budget handed foreign cloud providers a 20-year tax holiday before anyone thought to extend the same deal to Indian companies. The government building the case for AI independence wrote its first draft for the other side. It got fixed — but only after the domestic industry complained loudly enough.

#India #AI #SovereignAI #IndiaAI #Geopolitics #Tech

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 19, 2026 at 9:08pm

Anthropic Chief Says AI Summit in India Early this year was highly Chaotic

https://www.youtube.com/live/5r4eDNvom7E?is=vgQZhTGlfENkMNe1

——-
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei described the India AI Impact Summit as "extremely disorganised," explaining that the viral on-stage moment where he and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman appeared to avoid holding hands was due to last-minute confusion on stage rather than corporate rivalry. [1, 2]
The Context Behind the Viral Moment
The Hand-Holding Photo: During a group photo opportunity with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, tech leaders were unexpectedly instructed to hold hands. While leaders like Google’s Sundar Pichai complied, Amodei and Altman visibly avoided clasping hands, which sparked speculation of tension between the rival companies. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Amodei's Explanation: In a Bloomberg interview, Amodei clarified that participants were brought on stage at the last minute and their positions were repeatedly swapped. He emphasized the chaos was a product of the frantic coordination, and stated that many high-profile international summits involving heads of state tend to be similarly unorganized behind the scenes. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Political Repercussions in India
The Backlash: The Anthropic CEO's description of the chaotic environment quickly spread to social media in India. Opposition Congress party leaders highlighted the comment to criticize the government's management of the flagship event. [1, 2]
The Defense: Representatives from the ruling BJP pushed back, accusing the Congress ecosystem of circulating selectively edited clips that ignored Amodei's clarification that he was not specifically singling out India. [1]

Comment by Riaz Haq on June 28, 2026 at 1:07pm

China Has Matched Anthropic in Cybersecurity, Resetting AI Race - The Wall Street Journal.

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/chinese-ai-anthropic-mythos-cybersecuri...

Chinese artificial-intelligence systems have matched the performance of Anthropic’s powerful model Mythos in some cybersecurity scenarios, a development poised to reset the global tech race and pressure the White House in its overhaul of U.S. AI policy.

Security researchers said that a new AI model, released this month by China’s Zhipu AI, also known as Z.ai, can match the latest U.S. models when it comes to finding security bugs, although it still lags behind Anthropic’s and OpenAI’s products in other tasks.

Overall, the capability gap between top U.S. models and those built by Chinese companies has narrowed significantly, and use of Chinese AI systems has surged as businesses seek to rein in runaway costs. A host of companies, including Microsoft , are weighing how they can offer Chinese models on their platforms, a development that is set to alter the balance of power among tech companies.

“China is making sure that the gap becomes smaller and smaller over time,” said Lior Div, chief executive officer of the cybersecurity company 7AI.

The ability of AI systems to find bugs in software has added urgency to efforts to use models to close quickly vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers. Otherwise, the world will face what some researchers have called a bugmageddon.

Unlike models from Anthropic or OpenAI, Zhipu’s GLM-5.2 is open-weight. That means it can be downloaded and run on hardware operated by anybody and can be modified and used without supervision. Open-weight models are ideal for users who want unfettered access to systems they control, but they are also ideal for hackers, who can run them in the shadows.

GLM-5.2 has ranked as one of the 10 most-used AI models, according to data from OpenRouter, a company that provides access to more than 400 AI models. In some benchmarking tests, according to the cybersecurity company Semgrep, GLM-5.2 bested Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.8 model, which was released in May. When given further instructions, Opus 4.8 and GLM-5.2 can match Mythos in bug-finding ability, according to researchers.

On Wednesday, the Chinese cybersecurity company 360 Security Technology released a new bug-finding tool called Tulongfeng. The company said it was comparable to Mythos in finding bugs. Those capabilities have alarmed many national-security officials and CEOs.

“This kind of powerful weapon that can alter the landscape of cyberwarfare can’t remain solely in American hands,” 360 Security Chief Executive Zhou Hongyi said at a cybersecurity conference in Beijing. Zhou, an outspoken internet veteran and member of China’s top political advisory body, said China would face unacceptable risks if American entities could use advanced AI models to scan critical Chinese network systems while denying Chinese companies comparable capabilities.

China’s advances coincide with unprecedented U.S. government roadblocks to developers releasing models. On Friday, OpenAI said it was limiting access to its latest model, known as GPT-5.6, because of security concerns among administration officials. The company warned that the current case-by-case model-evaluation process wasn’t a long-term solution but said it is being used while a recent executive order focused on security and model oversight is implemented.

One of Anthropic’s latest general-use models has been shut down for more than two weeks after the Trump administration said no foreign entity or individual could use it because of security risks. The company closed all access to comply with the rule. The administration on Friday restored some access to a related Anthropic model called Mythos 5, which had previously been restricted.

Many have called the administration’s attack on a leading U.S. AI company counterproductive and criticized its decision to allow exports of AI chips to China in light of the nation’s recent advances.

Comment by Riaz Haq on Saturday

@alvinfoo

Just returned from WAIC 2026 in Shanghai.

One thing became crystal clear.

Most people in the West are looking at the AI race through the wrong lens.

They see:

• OpenAI vs DeepSeek
• Nvidia vs Huawei
• US vs China

That’s not what I saw.

China isn’t trying to win the chatbot race.

It’s trying to build the world’s largest AI-powered economy.

That changes everything.

Some observations from the ground:

→ AI is moving beyond demos into real industrial deployment.

Factories, logistics, manufacturing, healthcare, finance, education and government dominated the conversation, not consumer chatbots.

→ Compute sovereignty is no longer optional.

China is investing across the entire AI stack, chips, networking, cloud infrastructure and software optimization, not simply because it’s faster, but because strategic independence matters.

→ Robotics has crossed an important threshold.

This year’s focus wasn’t robots dancing.

It was robots working.

Factories.
Warehouses.
Hotels.
Industrial inspection.
Real production environments.

Deployment matters more than demonstrations.

→ The ecosystem is much broader than many realise.

Everyone knows DeepSeek.

But also watch:

• Qwen
• Kimi
• GLM
• MiniMax
• Baichuan

China now has multiple world-class AI companies competing aggressively across different layers of the stack.

Competition creates speed.

→ China also wants to influence AI governance.

Technology is only part of the strategy.

Standards.
Rules.
International collaboration.

Countries that help shape global AI governance may influence AI adoption just as much as those building frontier models.

My biggest takeaway?

The AI race is no longer just about building smarter models.

It’s about building better infrastructure.

Better deployment.

Better ecosystems.

And ultimately…

A larger AI-powered economy.

The companies that create the most economic value, not necessarily the highest benchmark scores, will define the next decade.

That’s the signal I believe many people outside China are still underestimating.

https://x.com/alvinfoo/status/2080507895431700546?s=61&t=mgTxrm...

Comment by Riaz Haq 4 hours ago

AI-enabled public governance

Pakistan’s National AI Policy 2025 aims to make AI part of public governance by 2035, powering e-governance, health, taxation and education—while tackling privacy, cybersecurity and skills gaps.

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2026/07/27/ai-enabled-public-gover...

Pakistan has taken a proactive step in its AI agenda with the formulation of the National Artificial Intelligence Policy 2025. It seeks to create an inclusive and ethical AI environment and establish Pakistan as an AI hub for the region by 2035.

Pakistan has also initiated digitalization, e-governance, e-health, e-education, and public–private partnerships in the wake of Vision 2025 and the Digital Pakistan Policy 2018. Public services, healthcare, Taxation, Law Enforcement, Higher Education, Research, etc., are increasingly driven by the use of AI and are associated with programs like the National Center of Artificial Intelligence (NCAI) and the Sino-Pak Center for Artificial Intelligence (SPCAI).

Artificial Intelligence will be a game-changer in Pakistan's governance and economy, said Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal. The government has ambitions to further develop AI-based digital infrastructure, with the development of Quantum Valley, National Innovation Fund, and evidence-based AI planning. By 2027, AI usage should be implemented in a core ministry task at least, with transparency, data privacy, fairness and ethical usage.

The government wants to use AI to boost the quality of education, health care, trade, research, and public administration, as part of its vision to propel the country to a $1 trillion economy by 2035. The federal government has suggested a big National AI Ecosystem Development Program with an estimated cost of Rs. 283 billion but received Just Rs. 1 Billion in New Budget.

Pakistan is taking incremental steps towards incorporating AI into public governance, as seen in various applications like identity verification, tax administration, healthcare, and public service delivery. AI systems at NADRA and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) have increased the efficiency of service, minimized fraud, and improved tax compliance.

AI-supported telemedicine is making healthcare more accessible in under-served regions. The National AI Policy 2025 outlines a detailed six pillar roadmap that emphasizes innovation, skill development, secure AI, infrastructure, sectoral transformation, and international cooperation, and sets ambitious targets like training one million individuals, setting up a National AI Fund, and establishing AI Centers of Excellence. Also, at the federal level, Pakistan is building an AI-powered digital governance platform to enhance coordination, transparency, accountability, and service delivery among ministries and the Prime Minister's Office.

Pakistan is far behind in the Government AI Readiness Index, 92nd position, whereas countries like the USA (1st), China (17th) and India (32nd) are ahead. Even with the strides made, Pakistan has some hurdles to overcome in the public sector to make AI more widely adopted. However, there are a number of challenges in the way of the mainstreaming of AI in the public sector in Pakistan. The issue of cybersecurity and data privacy is also significant, with the potential for a breach to halt the entire AI system.

Pakistan's public sector must not lag behind the global AI revolution. According to PwC Pakistan (2025), the cost of lack of AI adoption in the public sector is estimated to be up to $7 billion for Pakistan by 2030.

Pakistan as lagging in the global digital economy, impacting its competitiveness, its ability to attract investment, and its very capacity to govern effectively in an increasingly complex world. One survey conducted by UNDP Pakistan in 2024 revealed that only 12% of government officials had undergone any formal training in AI principles or applications relevant to public administration.

Comment by Riaz Haq 4 hours ago

Pakistan's Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) unveiled the National Artificial Intelligence Advancement Initiative (NAAI) to . [1]

Core Goals and Structure

• Seven AI Hubs: Planned for Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Muzaffarabad, and Gilgit.

• Startup Support: Aims to incubate 560 AI-driven startups and provide non-dilutive seed grants to 150 of them.

• Ecosystem Integration: Unites academia, industry, researchers, and investors under a single national framework to advance the National AI Policy. [1]

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